


Page-Turner

by CloudAtlas



Series: Promptathon 2016 [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Books, F/M, Natasha Romanov Joins SHIELD, Smart Clint Barton
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-01
Updated: 2016-09-01
Packaged: 2018-08-12 10:16:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 587
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7930876
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CloudAtlas/pseuds/CloudAtlas
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For the prompt: <i>Early in their partnership, Natasha discovers that Clint is an avid reader.</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	Page-Turner

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt by **sugar_fey**.

“There’s only one,” Barton says with an apologetic smile, in answer to her question about a bathroom. “Up the stairs, to your left. Ignore the mess in my room.”  
  
He points above him and it’s only when she heads to the stairs that she notices the room completely open out; the bedroom and bathroom on a mezzanine that gives the front room ceilings two storeys high.  
  
It’s a very _Barton_ apartment, for all that she’s known Barton only about two months.  
  
Natasha takes the stairs two at a time, fully intending to ignore absolutely everything that isn’t the bathroom – she has no desire to see where Barton sleeps, or so she tells herself – but that only works up until she’s faces with the absolute _tragedy_ that is Clint Barton’s bedroom. Or… no. There’s a method, somehow.  
  
It takes her a moment to realise that what she’s seeing is not, in fact, garbage that looks as if it’s blown in off the street. They’re… they’re _books_. Thousands of them, in the most terrible condition she’s ever seen. Books with the covers missing, books tied together with string because the spines aren’t just cracked, they’re _broken_ , dog-eared books, water damaged books, fucking… _bloodstained_ books.  
  
Natasha stares at them in shock.  
  
They’re piled up against the wall, almost to the ceiling, with not a bookshelf in sight. And the piles teeter, almost fall over, _do_ fall over. There’re piles on the bedside table, piles under the bed. She gingerly pulls back the (very purple) cover of his bed, almost without realising she’s doing it, to fine books _in_ his bed. _The Wealth of Nations_ by Adam Smith. It’s missing its back cover and its spine is cracked in at least three places. Next to it lies _Moral Combat_ by Michael Burleigh and _The Oxford Handbook of the History of Nationalism_. She turns to the books piles on the table; _Danubia_ by Simon Winder, Machiavelli’s _The Prince, This Changes Everything_ by Naomi Klein and… Natasha almost touches it to make sure she’s not imagining it, _Carol_ by Patricia Highsmith. There are Andy McNabbs behind the bedside table, one with a hole in it that makes it look like it was used to stop a bullet. Or maybe Barton used it for archery practice. That’s definitely what _Natasha_ would use Andy McNabb books for.  
  
And there’s _The Lord of the Rings_. And there’re all seven _Harry Potter_ books. _The Master and Margarita, The Defence of the Realm_ , piles of journal articles about psychology and warfare, about Middle Eastern archaeology, about post-colonial Africa.  
  
“You haven’t fallen into the toilet have you?” Barton calls from downstairs where he’s making the coffee he promised. Natasha starts and calls back a hasty, “No!”  
  
She’d never thought Barton was stupid, you don’t get to be as good at Barton by being stupid, but there are different kinds of clever. Barton’s a tactician and has people-smarts. He _must_ be good at geometry and maths, most snipers are, to a greater or lesser degree.  
  
She finds piles of tatty Arthur Conan Doyles piled up next to the toilet.  
  
But this, this points towards someone who’s been told his whole life that he’s stupid. This points towards someone with curiosity and drive. This points towards someone who wants, always always, to be better; better informed, better prepared, better _read_.  
  
This points towards someone who needs bookshelves, _badly_.  
  
Natasha gently touches the cover of _A Study in Scarlet_ and smiles to herself. Clint Barton just became a whole lot more interesting.


End file.
